Leadership

Starbucks Gets It

February 25, 2012

Starbucks Gets It

Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks was featured in the December issue of Fortune as the 2011 Businessperson of the Year. Schultz joined what was then called Starbucks Coffee, Tea and Spices in 1982 as its marketing leader when there were only four stores in the Seattle area. He developed a vision to model the stores after the many small espresso bars he saw across Italy, essentially selling not just coffee but the experience and environment. While skeptics laughed at him, he was easily able to sell coffee at a price greater than his competition, and create a new coffee (and tea) culture in the U.S.

IStock Photo

But to me, more significant than the success of his business are his business values. Starbucks provides health care and equity grants to all employees who work more than 20 hours each week, and rebuffs investors who try to persuade him to reduce such coverage. To him, it’s just doing the “right thing for it’s own sake”. He’s concerned about his entire supply chain, and through Starbucks Foundation he has given to people in third world countries to better their standard of living. He believes “there needs to be a balance between commerce and social responsibility…The companies that are authentic about it will wind up as the companies that make more money.” (more…)

Forgetfulness and Fruitfulness

February 5, 2012

Priscilla Archangel

Character, Leadership

Forgetfulness and Fruitfulness

Think of a time when you had an experience that was so negative that you wanted to just forget about it. Maybe it was a bad relationship, a challenging job, a chaotic family experience, or an insurmountable burden of debt. It may have happened many years ago, or very recently. In any event, the myriad of emotions that you went through during that period continues to stick with you. You may have been treated unfairly, abused, disrespected or bullied, because even adults are victims of bullying. You may have made a bad decision that you can’t undo, so it sticks with you and haunts you. Possibly you never shared your experience with anyone because it was too painful or embarrassing.

IStockPhoto

Unfortunately, now that experience lives on with you. You can’t shake it. It seems like it occurred just yesterday. It defines how you act and think, your responses to situations, and your perspective of yourself. You wish you could move on. You try to push it into the deep recesses of your mind, but at the seemingly strangest moments, it pops out again.

Everyone else around you seems to be carefree. No one else seems to have such a horrible memory. No one could imagine what you’ve been through. You want to shake it, yet you can’t seem to figure out how to do that. How can you forget? How can you move forward like it never happened?

A Time For Forgetfulness

There was a man named Joseph who had a similar experience. For no good reason, his jealous brothers threw him into an empty pit, and left him to die. Then they changed their mind and sold him to some strangers, who sold him again to a powerful and wealthy man. He lacked the freedom to get home to his father; and even if he could, feared his brothers’ wrath if he ever showed up again. So he stayed where he was, working day and night to please his boss, hoping that one day he’d be freed from his situation. He was successful in his work until one day he got in trouble with his boss’s wife. He had seen her looking at him when he was in her vicinity, and he always hurried through his work to get out of her presence. He knew better than to get involved with her. But one day, she caught him alone in the house and she went after him. He ran in fear, but in his haste he literally ran out of his clothes, and left them there in her hands. When he realized how she would then set him up, it was too late to do anything about it. Her husband, his boss, came home, listened to her lie, and threw him in prison for trying to rape his wife. (more…)

Do You Tebow?

December 23, 2011

Priscilla Archangel

Character, Faith Based Leadership, Leadership

Do You Tebow?

By now even non-NFL fans (like myself) are very familiar with Tim Tebow, the University of Florida Heisman Trophy winner and quarterback for the Denver Broncos, who is well known for his public confessions of faith. Tebow is credited with helping the Broncos to win seven of their last eight games with breakthrough fourth quarter plays, until they fell to the New England Patriots this past weekend.

Tebow was born in the Philippines where his parents were missionaries, and home schooled along with his siblings when they later moved to Florida.As a result of a new Florida law providing home-schooled students with equal access to high school sports, he played football in Ponte Vedra Beach then attended the University of Florida where he helped the team win two college football national championships.While there, he used his developing fame to raise money for charitable organizations, and spent his free time volunteering with the poor and needy, and with prisons.

IStockPhoto

He was a first round draft pick in 2010, and in his short career with the Broncos, has many critics of his playing style and capabilities. But he consistently proves them wrong as he performs better than expected in each game. He is one of the most talked about NFL players each week, not only for his exploits on the field, but because of how he interjects his faith into his sport. While he claims that God really doesn’t care who wins the game, after every touchdown, he points toward the sky, and drops a knee on the field in prayer. He begins post-game interviews by thanking his “Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”, and closes them with “God bless”. Tebow is also known to write words like John 3:16 and other Bible scriptures in the black paint under his eyes while playing, so that when the camera focuses on him, he’s able to share the Word of God.

While other athletes also invoke the name of God, or point a finger upward at various times, Tim’s commitment to bowing in prayer while on and off the field has made him somewhat of a phenomenon, and this physical posture is now called “Tebowing”. While some other players now “Tebow” as a form of mockery when he misses a play, it went viral when another fan set up a website (www.tebowing.com) filled with pictures submitted by people who “Tebow” in various places around the world. Whether mocking him, copying him, or committing like him, “Tebowing” is well known as a form of acknowledging God. (more…)

Starbucks Gets It

Starbucks Gets It

Forgetfulness and Fruitfulness

Forgetfulness and Fruitfulness

Do You Tebow?

Do You Tebow?

Leadership Tips